Paying Off Debt

There is no doubt that our push towards financial freedom has been a loooong and sloooow churn. It is funny how our debt can seem to accumulate so quickly when our broken appliances needed to be replaced, medical expenses needed to be paid, and our income level was dramatically reduced. Comparatively, the climb out of debt has been downright methodical, and even as we are making progress, it still feels like we are running in place.

Month after month, we scramble to make some side income, look for new ways to save on expenses, and continue to chop away at our debt mountain. Our goal of financial freedom in March 2013 still seems so far away, even though it is getting ever-closer. If only there was a way to obtain a boat-load of money in an instant, so that we could put this “buckle down and pay off debt” phase behind us. But just as this thought pops into my head, I know that this sort of thinking is what got us in trouble in the first place. The ONLY way to fix this situation is with persistence and patience...

The other day, I was browsing one of the fine blogs listed on the right of this page, and they mentioned Dave Ramsey and how his book had a huge impact on their financial habits. Don’t worry, this isn’t a blog about Dave Ramsey. That post has been written a thousand times by a thousand other people. I have never read Dave Ramsey’s book, but after seeing it mentioned in yet another post, I decided that I should probably go ahead and read this book and see what it was all about.

So, we reached the point where “Jefferson Wants a Book!” Immediately, old habits began to creep back. My first stop was Amazon.com, which is probably my favorite store in the world, because they have everything. They were charging $16.38 for the “Total Money Makeover,” which seemed a little steep. While I haven’t read Ramsey’s book, I am pretty sure that a portion of it will be dedicated to controlling your spending. My own “total money makeover” was not going to include buying really expensive books. The Kindle version was a little cheaper at $9.17, but still more expensive than any other Kindle book that I have ever purchased. I then remembered that you can usually get books for dirt cheap at eBay’s half.com website. Lucky for me, they were selling the Ramsey book, brand spanking new, for $4.00 +$3.99 shipping. I immediately got excited, and quickly added the book to my shopping cart...

I remember the day that I realized that I needed to make it a bigger priority to teach my kids about money. I was at the local electronics store playing with the iPads with my ten year old son.

“Dad, we should totally get one of these“, my son told me.“They are fun. But I can’t afford to buy one right now”, I responded.
“That’s okay, dad. You can just put it on your credit card.”“Uh, but then we would have to pay it back, with some interest. You can’t just put things on a credit card if you cannot afford them.”

My response was met with a completely blank stare. He was completely baffled by the concept. He clearly had no idea what interest was, what credit was, or what it truly meant to swipe that little plastic card. It was clear that my wife and I needed to open up our kids’ tiny little heads, and start pouring in everything that we knew about finances...

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The authors featured on this site are not financial experts, but are instead normal folks just figuring out how to make ends meet. The opinions and advice featured on See Debt Run have worked well for our families, but may not work for yours. If you choose to incorporate any ideas included on this site into your own financial planning, you do so at your own risk. We do NOT take any responsibility for the decisions you may make, even if they were based on something you read on this site.